Music of Jamaica

Jamaica's  incredibly rich musical  lineage includes diverse styles  such as the local  calypso  shuffle called  Mento,  religious  and  carnival  music. Jamaica is one of the few 3rd world nations whose music has achieved international acclaim all around the globe.

The popularity of reggae and dub has made Jamaica one of the musical centers of the world.

By 1968, a new form of music, the Reggae took the music scene by storm. As a Carribbean island, Jamaica has seen a full spectrum of colonial, indigenous and African cross influences. Reggae revived deep root beats at higher speeds, highlighting the drum and bass, inserting a chugging organ sound and laying a soul vocal on top. The Reggae music spread rapidly to the rest of the world. Its influence now appears in rap and modern rock.

Reggae music is often associated with Rastafarians. Followers of the Rastafarian cult with their long dreadlocks are non-violent, do not eat pork and believe in the divinity of the late Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari). The Rastas regard the ideologist, Marcus Garvey, as a prophet of the return to Africa. Born in 1887, St Ann’s Bay, he is now a Jamaican national hero. In the early part of the twentieth century, Garvey founded the idea of Black Nationalism, with Africa as the home for blacks. 

Many reggae artistes have won international fame, notably the late Bob Marley who died in 1981. Marley is credited with bringing the style to international fame. The late Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown and Jimmy Cliff are among the other world-famous reggae artists. Recent years have seen the traditional reggae being replaced by Dance Hall that has a much heavier beat and different themes.

Another branch of reggae is dub poetry, a chanted verse form that combines the musical tradition, folk traditions and popular speech. Jamaica's folk music is said to have its origin in West Africa. The drum is central to all Jamaican music having ties to Africa. Many village bands use maracas, mbiras, graters (cheese graters scraped with a nail), triangles, and glass bottles (struck with a stone or any hard object). Some groups also use a bamboo stick beaten with two other sticks and a machete struck with a metal beater. "Mento" is Jamaica's own original style of songs, instrumental music, and dancing. In a mento band, banjo and guitar play chords (or melody), a rhumba box or string bass plays the bass line, and melody may be played by fiddle, fife or piccolo, saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, or synthesizer.